Music

Kimaya's debut album, Breastfed, is out now on Spotify, Bandcamp, iTunes, Google Play, and more!

With influences spanning many genres, Kimaya Diggs melds the folky acrobatics of Joni Mitchell, the jazz stylings of Ella Fitzgerald, the catchy soul of Lianne LaHavas, and yet has something you can't quite put your finger on that makes her entirely unique. Her mastery of her voice is the focal point of each performance, and a transfixing experience

Her debut album, Breastfed, is a chronicle of bittersweet growing pains, expansive and generous. Whether roaring along with reckless urgency or irreverently recounting painful memories, Breastfed wrangles the growing-up narrative in a boldfaced, darkly humorous way.

More recordings

Home, homeis a collection of vocal trios, performed by the Diggs Sisters. Featuring songs from Corsica, Bulgaria, and early American Appalachian and gospel traditions, this is the Diggs Sisters' third album. Listen HERE.

past performance work

Three-continent tour with Northern Harmony teaching and performing traditional folk music from South Africa, Caucasus Georgia, Corsica, the Balkans, and the United States.

Featured in Swarthmore College's newly-commissioned children's opera, The Royal Singer. More classical performance can be found here.

"Campus a cappella group['s] performance at the beginning of the show was especially enchanting, as well as Diggs’ entire vocal performance..." - The Phoenix

Press

Interviews, podcasts, photos, and video.

BIO

Kimaya is a lifelong performer and teaching artist.

With influences spanning many genres, Kimaya Diggs melds the folky acrobatics of Joni Mitchell, the jazz stylings of Ella Fitzgerald, the catchy soul of Lianne LaHavas, and yet has something you can't quite put your finger on that makes her entirely unique. Her mastery of her voice is the focal point of each performance, and a transfixing experience.

Her debut album, Breastfed, is a chronicle of bittersweet growing pains, expansive and generous. Whether roaring along with reckless urgency or irreverently recounting painful memories, Breastfed wrangles the growing-up narrative in a boldfaced, darkly humorous way.

Kimaya grew up singing jazz, folk, and opera, and has toured the world teaching and performing music in 21 distinct international folk styles in 27 different languages. Her performances are half-song, half-story, and always captivating and emotional. She is a multi-instrumentalist, trained in classical piano and cello, and accompanying herself on guitar and ukulele. Her love for creative collaboration runs deep, as a contributor to plays, operas, podcasts, recordings, and TV shows as writer, librettist, lyricist, songwriter, and devising artist. She holds a BA in creative writing from Swarthmore College, where her studies also centered around classical voice performance.

sorting chat - theme song composer

This theme song was composed and recorded for the new podcast, Sorting Chat. The song was inspired by the original Harry Potter theme music to support this new podcast which features a core group of four Harry Potter-philes as they "sort" famous historical figures into Hogwarts houses.

little town in the hills (working title) - Librettist

Loosely drawing from the canon of Jewish Chelm stories as well as classical European folk and fairy lore, this children's opera tells the tale of two young children who wake one morning to find that the grownups from their town have gone missing. The story follows their search, frightening encounters with forest animals, and the teamwork necessary to solve several tricky riddles and find the grownups.

This work was commissioned by Guerilla Opera. Composer Jeremy Rapaport-Stein is currently composing the music.

scarlet letters - underscoring & songs

Based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, this one-woman play with song explores themes of femininity over time and the cultural narrative of womanhood. Written by Patrick Ross, the play is fully underscored and features two songs with words and music by Kimaya. "Scarlet Letters" premiered at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

hillary the first - songwriter

Hillary the First was a weekly recap of the year's election events written in the style of Shakespeare by Patrick Ross. Kimaya wrote a farewell song for every candidate that dropped out over an 18-month period.

Teaching

teaching

Kimaya has taught and performed international folk music traditions for 12 years. She sings in 27 languages and over 20 distinct vocal styles and traditions. She teaches workshops of traditional American, South African, Corsican, and Balkan music to ensembles of all sizes and ages.

Currently, Kimaya teaches 2nd- through 12th-grade students in various vocal ensembles in Amherst, MA, and at the Hartsbrook School in Hadley, MA, where she also maintains a studio of private students in voice, guitar, ukulele, and songwriting.